The Mothering Methods Of Sethe In Beloved By Toni Morrison

Scars are undoubtably an incredible means of storytelling in Beloved. No matter how a person changes or what happens to them, these marks are another bit of tangible history, following each of them wherever they may go. These physical characteristics are what one can believe in, more than what is said or written. When written and oral language can many times not be trusted, physical characteristics provide another more certain form of communication--one that cannot be biased or altered.

Sula by Toni Morrison highlights the themes and expectations that we have been discussing throughout the course. This story illustrates the community expectations for women. A strong basis for a thesis statement for the book Sula could be betrayal. Betrayal in the novel Sula is the central theme that changes the course of life for all characters involved. One example of betrayal happens when Sula sleeps with Nel’s husband. Another basis for a thesis statement could be a mother’s love. In Sula, Morrison revitalizes a theme that is explored in much of her writing: the nature and limits of a mother’s love. When you consider the character of Eva, she is an example of what a mother’s love is and the lengths a mother

The past comes back to haunt accurately in Beloved. Written by Toni Morrison, a prominent African-American author and Noble Prize winner for literature, the novel Beloved focuses on Sethe, a former slave who killed her daughter, Beloved, before the story begins. Beloved returns symbolically in the psychological issues of each character and literally in human form. The novel is inspired by the true story of Margaret Garner, a slave in the 1850s, who committed infanticide by killing her child. Barbara Schapiro, the author of “The Bonds of Love and the Boundaries of Self in Toni Morrison’s Beloved”, Andrew Levy, the author of “Telling Beloved”, and Karla F.C. Holloway, the author of “Beloved: A Spiritual”, present ideas of the loss of psychological freedom, the story being “unspeakable”, Beloved being the past, and the narrative structures of the story rewriting history.

to her. Amy Denver saves Sethe. Amy is a white girl who came to Sethes

Yet another example of Sethe’s dependence on her own strength is the account of Sethe’s own escape from “the grips of slavery in order to protect her children from what Morrison describes as School teacher’s brutal empire”.(196) Sethe is married by fourteen and is a mother by fifteen; but she is older and pregnant with her last child before she has to become superior protector of her children. Twenty-eight days after being a free woman, Sethe is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice as a mother. Although she is jailed as a murderer, her attempt to kill her four children is done so that her children would never know the life of a slave, so they would never be acquainted with “what Baby Suggs died of, what Ella knew, what Stamp saw and what

Stamp Paid, a former slave who ferries Sethe and Denver across the Ohio River, tried to take Beloved’s corpse from the mother’s clinging hands and give Denver to her. A mother killing her own child is an act that subverts the natural order of the world. A mother is expected to create life, not destroy it, but with Sethe’s case, she was insane and out of control at that specific moment when she imagined that her child might face the same assault in future. Thus, she prefers to put an end to this situation. On the other hand, we notice that she was very anxious about the feeling of Beloved, her murdered child. She stated, “Do you forgive me? Will you stay? You safe here now”

Late in 1987, after being inspired by a fellow story of a female fugitive slave, Toni Morrison pens a novel about a runaway slave and her children. Although Morrison’s “Beloved” quickly became a best-seller, and even has a movie adaption, it still left the audience with many unanswered questions. This novel not only gave a voice to those who were often silenced in the male stories of slavery, but it also perfectly exemplified the relationship was between the mother and the child, and the effects of slavery. Much like Jacob’s autobiography, Morrison follows directly on the issue of shame, as the protagonist of this novel is often haunted by her actions following the passing of the Fugitive

Looking at the female slave as a mother, we find that she fetishizes her relationship with her child. Fueling her state of distortion further, we suggest that the mother believes her infant son’s existence is another mistakes. Boldly, the mother takes on the unprecedented role of God and makes a multitude of distasteful decisions about her infant son. Like deeming his fair skin unbearable, predicting that as an adult he will claim a “master-right” over black slaves, and finally ending his life. By all accounts, the mother is unable to make sensible decisions about anything.

Her community shuns her, and even a trusted friend like Paul D says “What you did was wrong, Sethe.” (Morrison 194) Margaret Garner was provided with sympathy and support from her enslaved community that recognized her desperation and fear, and outsiders that were inspired by the tragedy of her case. Sethe’s peers share her experiences with slavery, but are less compassionate in their response. She was isolated from her neighbors because she killed Beloved. The act was seen as a sort of betrayal to the community in which no one is left behind, even if they knew her circumstances. The trauma behind the crime was acknowledged, but not understood. Both Margaret Garner and Sethe experience immense stress in the aftermath of their daughter’s death, as people question whether or not what they did was right and challenge why they committed the crime to begin

Shielded from the atrocities of slavery during her childhood, Jacobs depicts family life among slaves as one that remains intact in a “comfortable home” (29) through the example of her own family. Each member held limited rights along with the ability to work and the privilege to use their earnings as they pleased. It is not until the death of her mistress where she finally begins to feel the effects of slavery in the sudden separation of her family who are “all distributed among her [mistress’s] relatives” (Jacobs 33). The separation of family is one of the most integral subjects of her narrative since “motherhood [plays a great role] in her life” (Wolfe 518). Jacobs appeals to the emotions of her female audiences by contrasting a slave mother’s agonies in her separation from her children with the “happy free women” (40) whose children remain with her since “no hand” (40) has the right to take them away. The separation of families in Douglass’s narrative does call for some pity but the event is not as tragic in comparison to

Toni Morrison’s Beloved shows the dehumanization of slavery and its effects on African-Americans and their basic forms of existence—specifically motherhood. Morrison depicts the strong maternal bond between Sethe and her children. Most importantly, her use of Sethe’s controversial act of infanticide shows the lengths that Sethe will take to protect her children from slavery. Morrison’s depiction of Sethe’s motherhood shows how slavery has deconstructed the Eurocentric expectations and traditions of motherhood and gender for black women. Rather than victimize Sethe’s as an enslaved woman, Morrision decides to celebrate her triumphs and suffering in Beloved. Therefore, Sethe’s identity as an enslaved black mother deconstructs the expectations of Eurocentric gender roles with her exertion of independence and control for the benefit of her children.

 When Sethe finally arrives at 124 Bluestone Road, she is greeted with her loving mother-in-law, Jenny Whitlow, known to her as Baby Suggs.  A second healing takes place when Baby Suggs tends to her mutilated body.  “She led Sethe to the keeping room and bathed her in sections, starting with her face…Sethe dozed and woke to the washing of her hands and arms…When Sethe’s legs were done, Baby looked at her feet and wiped them lightly.  She cleaned between Sethe’s legs…”(Morrison, 93).  The methodical washing of Sethe’s body emphasizes the sympathy and love that fills Baby Suggs’ heart.  Putting her trust in Baby Suggs for the relief of physical and emotional torment, is the only way Sethe is able to relieve herself of her haunted past and suffering body.  Baby Suggs knows as well as Sethe, the haunting miseries of black men and women who have been brought low by slavery, yet she urges her daughter-in-law to keep going and be strong.

During slavery, African American men and women were subject to cruel labor and punishment throughout the Americas. They were beaten, abused, and forced to toil for long hours, burdened with the weight of an astronomical workload. In Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, she is able to capture this aspect of slavery by identifying gender roles and the effects of slavery on laborers. The narrative tells the story of a runaway slave named Sethe who has found freedom in Cincinnati after escaping Sweet Home plantation in the South. Throughout the novel she suffers from her past and is haunted by the peculiar death of her unnamed baby. Through characters like Sethe, Morrison is able to show the function of gender in slavery as well as the damaging

Morrison's Beloved offers a non-linear perspective and a reshaping of the discourse of slavery. The identities of the characters in Beloved are recreated through dealing with and facing their past. Morrison not only reexamines and modifies the history of slavery; she also acknowledges the female African American identities in the cultural and societal contexts that were dominated by the white race. Morrison has said, "if we don't keep in touch with the ancestor . . . we are, in fact, lost" (Rushdy, 567). In order to keep in touch with the ancestor, Morrison adds, that it is essential to reconstruct memory: "Memory (the deliberate act of remembering) is a form of willed creation. It is not an effort to find out the way it really was-that is research. The point is to dwell on the way it appeared and why it appeared in that particular way" (Rushdy, 567). The concern of appearance and philosophy of conveyance is fractionally part of her project, stating we must, "bear witness and identify that which is useful from the past and that which ought to be discarded" (Rushdy, 567). Morrison uses one tragic and traumatic event, in this case infanticide, to set the story into a tone and context that is easily relatable and understood. As a result, the reader

Another example of motherly bonds is when Baby Suggs explains that she never felt like a mother because before she could love her children they were taken away from her. Morrison’s point is that a slave woman would oftentimes have their babies taken from them and sold to white slave owners for money, never being able to see them ever again. According to Sethe she was lucky to be married for six years and that man fathered all of her children. This exemplifies how close Sethe could have been with her children because she able to be a part of their life. What is important, is that Sethe got to experience the motherly bond of keeping her children and not having to be afraid of ever losing them. It follows Sethe’s role and the choices that she had to take control of because she did not have a masculine figure in her life.